Book Country Publishing Terms of Use

GENERAL

Welcome to Book Country. Book Country LLC is an online literary community and an affiliate of Penguin Group (USA) In., where writers and readers can share and discuss each other's original work and can self-publish their works. By purchasing goods or services on this site, or by buying or selling self-published works on this site, you agree to be bound by and comply with these Terms of Use and the Book Country General Terms of Use, including the Privacy Policy, and you represent and warrant that you have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement. If you do not agree with these Publishing Terms of Use and the General Terms of Use, please do not purchase any goods or services from this site and do not buy or sell any self-published works from this site. These Publishing Terms of Use will apply in the event of any conflict with the General Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

BOOK COUNTRY SERVICES AND MARKETPLACE

In addition to participating in the Book Country Community and uploading your content for users of the site to view online for free, you may self-publish your books in eBook form. Within the publishing tools you may opt-in/opt-out of the retailers you would like your eBook distributed to. Commencing in July 2013, Book Country will have an online bookstore as well to sell your eBook and for readers to purchase eBooks.

For writers, the first step in the self-publishing process is to select a Publishing Package from Book Country. You can style and format the eBook yourself or purchase a package from Book Country that includes interior formatting and corrections. You will be able to distribute your eBook via a wide online sales network including major online eBooksellers in the United States. As part of the Publishing Package, Book Country will obtain an ISBN (book identifier) and set the title up in Book Country’s systems and the retailer network so that your eBook can be purchased. You may select the price you wish to charge for your eBook within the range provided. You will receive a percentage of the amount of money Book Country receives from the sale of your eBook, based on the price you set (the amount you receive shall be referred to herein as “Author Earnings”). A detailed explanation of the pricing policy and how to calculate Author Revenue can be found here. For eBooks sold via the wider network, the commission charged by the online retailers will be deducted prior to calculation of your Author Earnings.

You will be able to change the distribution option and price of your eBook once every 60 days from publication. The information you provide for the "About the Book” will also be used as a description of your eBook and as metadata (descriptive information that will be available to consumers) supplied to distributors. You will retain the copyright to your book.

By default, your eBook sales author earnings are paid by mailed check. You can opt in to the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) by adding your bank account information to your Book Country account. Simply log-in to your account and click on Profile to update your information. Alternatively, you can sign up for direct deposit by filling out and returning the form (download direct deposit form PDF). With EFT or direct deposit, instead of receiving mailed checks, your Author Earnings will be deposited into your bank account. Please note: If you are paid by check, a $5.00 check fee will be deducted from your Author Earnings; however, there is no fee for direct deposit or EFT payments.

If you choose to be paid by check, you will start receiving Author Earnings the first quarter that your Author Earnings for an eBook reach $50.00 or more. Your Author Earnings will be held until the balance due to you is $50.00 or more, as stated in the Publishing Terms and Conditions Agreement. If you choose to be paid by EFT or direct deposit, you will start receiving Author Earnings the first quarter your Author Earnings reach $1.00.

For each payment option, Author Earnings are paid quarterly (four payments per year).

It takes about two months after the quarter closes until the Author Earnings are sent to you. First Quarter checks are mailed in late May, Second Quarter checks are mailed in late August, Third Quarter checks are mailed in late November, and Fourth Quarter checks are mailed in late February. The two month timeframe is because we do not receive the reporting sales information until 30 days after the close of the quarter. The additional time is to verify, compile, and send the information to you.

You can see your sales and author earnings reports from your dashboard. The information in the "Sales Report" is updated throughout the quarter to give you a good idea of how and where your eBook is selling. We always do our best to get accurate sales information to you as soon as we can, however this data cannot be updated in real time and may not reflect finalized information. Sales made through outside retailers are updated monthly. Please note that external retailers -- Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. -- operate under their own schedules, so we cannot control the frequency with which they report sales information back to us. The information we receive from our retail partners may reflect only the month of sale, not the actual date. That means retailer sales will show up in your "Sales Report" as the first day of the month they are effective. For example, all of your sales made through Apple for the month of May 2013 will reflect a sales date of 5/1/2013 in the online reports.

You can fill out your W-9 or W-8BEN online through your Book Country account. Simply log-in to your account and click on Publishing Profile to update your information. We require your Social Security number to comply with the government's tax regulations. Since you have the opportunity to earn additional income from eBook sales, the government requires that you pay taxes on the total earnings. The W-9 form allows you to provide a Taxpayer Identification Number, or TIN. If you are publishing your eBook under your own name or a pen name, your TIN is your Social Security number. If you are publishing under a business name, or you want your author earnings check to be addressed to a business, you can enter your employer identification number instead of your personal Social Security number.

If you do not supply your taxpayer ID number, we are required to withhold taxes at the rate of 28 percent of total earnings.

If you supply us with your taxpayer ID at a later date, we cannot return the withheld tax money because we do not retain it -- it is passed on to the government by law. You can speak to a tax professional about how to report this at the end of the tax year in order to receive a tax return for any additional amount that you are due. You will receive a 1099 statement from Book Country after the end of the year.

As part of your publishing package, Book Country will provide you with a number of documents explaining the publishing process and offering ideas for how best to market and promote your eBook. The content of these materials is owned by Book Country and is meant solely for the personal use of those who have purchased our services. These materials are to provide guidance only. You are solely responsible for the marketing and promotion of your eBook, for compliance with any applicable laws, regulations or rules in connection with such marketing and promotion and for your participation in blogs, social media or any other marketing forums and outlets, whether in print, on line, or in person.

In addition to offering Publishing Packages and distribution, Book Country may also provide information about third-party service providers and links to websites outside of Book Country that offer publishing-related services. Your use of outside websites and third-party providers is subject to the terms and conditions of those websites, and not those of Book Country. Book Country is not responsible for your use of such websites or for the work performed by third- party providers.

PAYMENT TERMS

Users must have a valid credit card to purchase goods or services from Book Country. Payment is due at the time that goods or services are ordered.

REMOVING CONTENT

Unless you request otherwise, as long as you are a member in good standing of Book Country, we will continue to sell your eBook. As stated in the Community Terms of Use, you may remove work that you have uploaded to the site, but comments you may have posted cannot be removed and will remain on the site. You may also notify us to stop selling your eBook via Book Country and/or wider distribution, in which event your eBook will remain available on the applicable sites to customers who have previously purchased it. If you decide to terminate your membership in Book Country, we will also stop selling your eBook. In any event, you will receive any Author Earnings due to you for all previous sales per the above payment provisions. If you are banned from the Book Country Site, we will stop selling your eBook, remove your content, and pay out any Author Earnings in your account.